India Post Task Force finalises report; to meet Prasad

New Delhi: The Task Force set up to suggest ways for turning around India Post has finalised its report and has sought a meeting with Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Parsad to discuss its findings.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set up the Task Force to leverage the postal network in India and to enhance the role of India Post in financial inclusion, among other services like delivery of goods for eCommerce firms.

With the world's largest postal network, India Post has about 1.55 lakh post offices spread across the country. On an average, a post office serves an area of 21.21 sq km and a population of 7,175 people. The Task Force, chaired by Former Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramanian, has finalised its report, sources said.

"The 10-member force has now sought a meeting with Prasad to discuss the findings of the report before submitting it to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO)," a source said.

Earlier this year in October, Banerjee had said the Task Force will submit its report by the end of the year. The government is planning to utilise the huge resources at the disposal of India Post to provide cost-effective and innovative solutions to the citizens like financial services using digital connectivity, a source said.

The idea behind the exercise is to enable the postman in rural areas to provide a plethora of services like savings and insurance, normal postal operations and also value added services like accepting payments of various services as well as registration of data. Prasad has on various occasions said India Post with its unparallelled rural, urban and semi-urban reach is best suited to offer delivery services to e-commerce players.